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 Tony Sparano will no longer wear the head-set in Miami.

The Miami Dolphins have parted ways with head coach Tony Sparano, effective immediately. Miami is 4-9 this season, and that is a major factor in Sparano’s firing. This move has been in the horizon ever since the Dolphins 0-7 start to 2011. Tony Sparano finishes his career in Miami with a 29-32 record. Earlier today, Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley was fired, joining Jack Del Rio on the season so far of coaches being axed.

Assistant coach Todd Bowles will take over in Miami as interim head coach and GM Jeff Ireland will remain with team for now.

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After losing in the final minutes of Week 3, Washington looks to pull the upset as they host the Cowboys. Here are the key area’s the Redskins must excel in, in order to get the win:

1)      Protect Grossman: The Redskins quarterback received a lot of criticism after being benched in Week 5 against the Eagles, due to his weakness with turnovers. Although he looked decent last week, he was rushed a lot and forced to make bad throws. If the offensive line can hold off some of the most brutal linebackers in the league, Grossman will have the opportunity to make accurate throws, and more importantly, touchdowns.

2)      Get the run game going early: Ranked dead last in the league in rush yards with 86.7, the running back system has been out of form since lead rusher Tim Hightower was lost to injury. In order to make this a close game, Roy Helu and Ryan Torain will have to step up and make plays.

3)      Catch the ball: Something the Redskins have been lacking at is catching the ball. Sure, the receivers on this team are young and learning the system, but they need to learn quicker. Veteran Donte’ Stallworth was re-signed this week and looks to lend a hand, along with David Anderson and Jabar Gaffney. Also, after a quiet game against the Dolphins, team leader in receiving yards Fred Davis will look to rebound with a strong, difference making game.

4)      Keep Murray contained: Cowboys rookie star DeMarco Murray has been a big help this season, rushing for nearly 700 yards on 100 carries. Week by week, he has shredded opponents, shaking defense’s out of their shoes. The Redskins need to chalk up some defensive schemes on how the will contain him and limit the run game. The strong defensive ends Stephan Bowen and Adam Carriker will look to keep him from running wide, and the linebackers will try to clog up the middle.

5)      Hit Romo: Hobbled by injuries in Week 3, the Redskins had every opportunity to make Cowboys QB Tony Romo feel the pain, yet they failed, barley laying a hand on him. The Washington defense will have to put pressure on Romo early and hit him hard, even if the first one draws the flag. If they can efficiently hurry and trap Romo, he will be forced to throw a bad pass (a good thing), or take a big hit (a great thing).

One more for good luck: Maybe the biggest factor in the game is Kyle Shanahan. He will need to be smart and call what is best for the team in the long run, not just at the moment. If Helu runs wild, let him run wild. If the pass game gets going, trust the receiver’s and take advantage of it. If not, someone else on the coaching staff may be calling plays the rest of the season.

The season started out as a disaster.  We had players dropping like flies.  Phillip Daniels went down, possibly with a career ending knee injury. Promising defensive end Alex Buzbee also went down with a ruptured Achilles tendon.  Fred Smoot went down with a sprain that fortunately doesn’t seem to be too bad.  I was starting to have flashbacks of the infamous body bag game in Philly.  Not only were two of the injuries serious, but they were all in positions where we could ill afford to lose anyone.

But good ol’ Danny was not about to allow his season to be ruined in the first day of training camp. He went out and pulled the trigger on a trade that brings Jason Taylor from Miami to the Nation’s Capital.

The trade forces us to give up a second round pick in 2009 and a sixth round in 2010.  Furthermore, Jason Taylor claims that he’s willing to play for the final two years of his contract without negotiating a new deal.  Despite media criticism, we had the cap room tucked away for a rainy day and now we’ve got a potential game-changing player.

Let’s hope we got our serious injuries out of the way and that this first day isn’t a harbigner of more to come.  I’m excited at the potential of Jason Taylor, especially now that he’s talking about two years and the trade price tag is a little lower.  With the injury situation, I think we needed to pull the trigger on a deal somewhere.  We were already thin to begin with.

In other news, in case you missed it, all of the Redskins draft picks are signed and attending now that Fred Davis has signed.  There are no reports that anyone slept in, which in itself is a good sign for Davis. 

Hail Skins!